Vulnerable products, such as fruits, in relatively large crates are in practice usually emptied into a holder with liquid, usually water, from where the fruits must be transferred to a sorting device for sorting to size (or weight, quality and the like). The fruits are carried using a water flow to a discharge conveyor for discharging the fruits from the liquid container, wherein the discharge conveyor is for instance an endless conveyor with diabolo-shaped receiving elements for the fruits.
An example of a known device is described in the European patent application EP-A-0 635 443, wherein the fruits are transferred from a water channel to a discharge conveyor using tubes. The capacity and utilization of this tubular transfer device is insufficient, while there is a considerable risk of damage to the vulnerable fruits.
From the U.S. Pat. No. 2,831,518 is known a device wherein tomatoes are skinned and wherein a conveyor extends below a liquid surface in a liquid holder.
A conveyor of V-shaped cross-section for reorienting a fruit or a vegetable along a determined axis is further known from the U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,635, wherein there is however no liquid holder.
The present invention has for its object to improve the known device and provides a device for singulating from a holder with liquid and/or individualizing of products, such as fruits, wherein the device comprises:
a discharge conveyor extending above the liquid level in the holder for discharging the products in rows; and
a feed conveyor of V-shaped cross-section, the discharge end of which connects onto a front end of the discharge conveyor and which extends at an inclination from this front end to below the liquid level in the liquid holder.
Because the V-shaped feed conveyor extends partially under water, the fruits are urged by the water flow into the tracks until the V-shaped conveyor, which can be driven at relatively high speed, engages on the fruits and transports them, preferably up against a rotatable brush roller placed above the transition between the feed conveyor of V-shaped cross-section and the discharge conveyor.
Since it has been found in experiments that the conveyor of V-shaped cross-section must be precisely positioned relative to the liquid level, both ends of the feed conveyor are preferably height-adjustable, as is the front end of the discharge conveyor connecting onto the feed conveyor.
The liquid level is determined inter alia by the force of circulation means for the liquid, such as a pump. For a more accurate adjustment of the liquid flow to the setting of the feed conveyor, a pivotal plate is preferably situated at some distance from this liquid level, which plate influences the volume of the liquid flow to a greater or lesser degree and thus the speed at which the fruit is supplied. The liquid level is determined inter alia by the force of the circulation means, the number of fruits in the channel and the degree of wave action in the liquid bath.
In order to prevent the possibility of fruits flowing to the V-shaped conveyor becoming snagged, the conveyor belts of the V-shaped conveyor preferably have a different speed so that the fruits are rotated slightly and are carried successively into a track.